Pete Buttigieg narrowly won during last week’s Democratic Party caucuses in Iowa. As disastrous as the vote-counting debacle was for candidates, their actual policies on life issues are far worse.

The young mayor could be the most troubling. He cloaks his extreme views in what sounds like biblical language, but he’s certainly no theologian.

Buttigieg says that life begins when you take the first breath. He claims abortion at any point prior to the baby taking the first breath is perfectly fine and totally without moral or ethical problems.

Science Proves Him Wrong: Exhibit A, “Fetal Breathing”

He ignores multiple facts when he makes this statement, and he’s not the only person who has ever used that as a defense of abortion.

In fact, fetal breathing occurs long before birth. We watch on ultrasound as the baby inhales amniotic fluid by expanding the rib cage to pull fluid in and contracts the rib cage to exhale the fluid.

This action uses the fluid to distend the alveoli, the tiny air sacs in the lungs and allow them to properly develop. If this did not occur, the child would be unable to breath air after the delivery.

Fetal breathing is a widely used medical term. Look up the term “biophysical profile” and you will see that the observation of fetal breathing on ultrasound is a universally accepted description of what is observed. It is a sign of reassuring fetal well-being.

God Involved Long Before We are Born

As an OB-GYN who is also a committed Christian, I see clearly how medical ethics and science reflect truths in the Bible.

Adam and Eve were the only two human beings to have ever lived whose lives began at the moment air filled their lungs. Every other human being who has ever lived began life at the moment of conception.

Scripture says that God hates the hands that shed innocent blood. At least nine times He condemns child sacrifice and has called it “detestable.”

Scripture clearly states God’s loving involvement in our lives during our time before we are born. He has a relationship with us before we are born, God has plans for each life.

Scripture tells us that the unborn John the Baptist had the spiritual discernment to recognize the unborn Messiah when He came near. It clearly states that God is the author of life, and that it is wrong to take innocent life.

Scripture clearly states that parents have a responsibility to care for their young children, and never states that it’s OK to kill their innocent unborn children.

No fewer than twelve times does God command us to stand up for the weak.

Scripture’s Doesn’t Condemn Abortion? Exhibit B, Pharmakeia

Yes, there is reason to believe that Scripture does specifically condemn abortion. In Galatians 5:20, Paul rebukes those who continue to practice, among other things, sexual immorality and “pharmakeia.”

This is a Greek word and the word from which we get our word “pharmacy.” It is linked in many translations to the concept of sorcery, and here is where the connection to abortion comes in.

Sex outside of marriage was prevalent in the Roman Empire, as was the practice of visiting a sorcerer to obtain a pharmaceutical or medicinal concoction that could cause the loss of the pregnancies that resulted from that behavior. Paul linked the two things together in Gal 5:20 for a reason.

The first century Christians were pro-life. They opposed the use of abortifacient medicinals to cause the loss of unwanted pregnancies. Then, because the medicinals didn’t always work, Romans who didn’t want the born child would often take them out and leave them to the elements and animals, “leaving them in the hands of the gods.”

Early Christians not only opposed abortion, they looked for these babies and took them in and raised them. They were pro-life, pro-love, pro-adoption — and today’s Christians who hold to the scripture, church tradition and current science still do.

Dr. Brent Boles has been practicing medicine for two decades as an OB/GYN in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He served as a volunteer spokesman for the Yes on 1 initiative and currently serves as medical director at Portico, a pregnancy help center. His new book Supremely Wrong is now available.